Section 24-17-09 - Duties and powers of the director1. The director is authorized:a. To designate tracts of land adjacent to the state highway system which are necessary for the restoration, preservation, and enhancement of scenic beauty.b. To regulate the erection, construction, or placing of any sign, display, or device within six hundred sixty feet [201.17 meters] of the nearest edge of the right of way and to adopt standards relating to size, lighting, and spacing thereof in conformity with 23 U.S.C. 131, provided the rules are not more restrictive than those provided thereunder.c. To establish permits authorizing the erection, construction, placement, replacement, repair, and maintenance of any outdoor sign, display, or device, which is within six hundred sixty feet [201.17 meters] of the nearest edge of the right of way and visible from any place on the main traveled way of the state highway system; to establish a fee schedule for such permits and to prescribe rules for the issuance thereof.d. To determine unzoned commercial or unzoned industrial areas along the state highway system by agreement with the secretary of transportation of the United States pursuant to 23 U.S.C. 131.e. The director may designate which tracts of land are necessary for the restoration, preservation, and enhancement of scenic beauty adjacent to the state highway system. The director shall acquire, improve, and maintain said tracts of land the director deems necessary for the restoration, preservation, and enhancement of scenic beauty adjacent to the state highway system, and said tracts of land may be beyond six hundred sixty feet [201.17 meters] of the nearest edge of the right of way.2. The interest in any land directed to be acquired and maintained under this section may be a fee simple or any lesser interest, as determined by the director to be reasonably necessary to accomplish the purposes of this section. The acquisition may be by gift, purchase, exchange, or, subject to section 32-15-01, condemnation under the right and power of eminent domain in the same manner that the director may acquire right of way for construction, reconstruction, widening, alteration, changing, locating, relocating, aligning, realigning, or maintaining a state highway.